Researchers hope artificial arms will one day work and feel like a real arm

The technological and medicinal
breakthroughs that scientists make today are often not even
close to imaginable to researchers just a few years ago. With
monetary help, researchers at the University of Utah are hoping to
once again do something simply amazing. As part of the
Revolutionizing Prosthetics 2009 project that is sponsored by the
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), researchers want
to make mechanical arms operate and function closely to real,
biological limbs. According
to a press release from the University of Utah:

"Imagine
an artificial arm that moves naturally in response to your thoughts,
that allows you to feel both the outside world and your own
movements, and that is as strong and graceful as an intact,
biological limb," says bioengineer Greg Clark, the University of
Utah's principal investigator on the project.

The
new prosthetic limb would operate because an implanted device would
theoretically be able to relay nerve impulses in the limb to a small
computer that would then send the impulse to the bionic arm. If
the research is successful, it could be a great step towards allowing
people to once again have limbs that are work and feel like real
limbs.

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